Claude Dessimond

Claude Dessimond discovered mask design in 2002, at the Laboratoire d'Étude du Mouvement of the Jacques Lecoq International Theatre School in Paris. He became interested in the rare profession of mask-making for the theatre, which he approached alone, due to the lack of a specialist training centre. In 2005 he followed the course organised in Italy by the Sartori family at the Centro Maschere e Strutture Gestuali, under the tutelage of Paduan master mask-maker Donato Sartori. In 2009 Claude joined the workshop of the Swiss Maître d’art and mask-maker Erhard Stiefel, with whom he continues to learn about sculpting and theatre masks. As a PhD candidate in Arts at the UPHF of Valenciennes, Claude's main case study is the studio of Maître d’art Erhard Stiefel.

As a PhD student, Claude studies Harlequin masks historically and archaeologically. The masks he creates follow the same techniques used in the Renaissance for Commedia dell'arte. Since the mid-18th century, the technical skills of creating moulded leather masks have nearly disappeared. In the 20th century the Padovan sculptor Amleto Sartori (1915-1962) started teaching this rare art form again, at the fine arts school of Venice. After him followed the Swiss Maître d’art Erhard Stiefel (1940-), with whom Claude studied for over ten years, rediscovering this rare craft and applying it in the modern theatre.

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